American Education

I just remembered I do have something to write about. This weekend the founder of FIRST Robotics and an inventor of many things Dean Kamen, was in Hawaii. I was able to go to two of his presentations on Saturday but was unable to go to the main one yesterday because I was taking my AP Physics test. Although his presentation may not have been much differnt I better understood his message. The main idea of FIRST is that the problem with the American education system is not that education is not properly available, but that youth do not want it. The main problem is the culture of american. America almost spends more money on education than the rest of the world combined. More students want to be celeberties and athletes than scientists or engineers. So the main idea of FIRST is to get students interested in science and technology through means that people are familiar with. FIRST was created to be a sport with a short season, TV friendly competition, and an element of luck involved in the game. Since then, FIRST has been extremely sucessful. FIRST alumni are 50% more likely to go to college, 3X more likely to major in engineering, and many other statistically significant changes to peoples lives.

Bored

It may seem that with only one class left I would be having the best time of my life. It is nice to have break all the time, but after being programmed to go to class everyday according to my schedule, I am not sure what to do. I know I should be kicking back now since I have barely anything to do, but I still feel like I have a lot to do. I know I probably never said anything meaningful in this post but I am not sure what to write about.

AP Exam

It has been about a month since I have written anything on here. This post may not have relevance to many people. I may have only finished one of the three exams but I still feel somewhat relieved. I barely studied for this past exam but maybe that is why I am so glad to be through with it. When I reflect over the past few hours of my life I try not to try to correct my answers in my head because it will not change what I put in the test booklet. I know I have another test tomorrow and it is probably best if I get some sleep. I don't know why I am concerned at all because AP exams do not matter. That is, they do not give me any credit for courses next year. One of my classmates suggested I should just turn in the booklet blank because the test doesn't matter. The only reason I wouldn't do that is because that is not the point of the exams. The college board wants to know if we were in an AP course over the past year and the test proves that. In a way a test is a way for us to show how much we know. And well, college course credit is a reward that can follow. By now I am starting to view school differently, one such reason would be that grades do not have nearly as much significance but yet, I am still maintaining my first semester grades. School is a lot more interesting when I do it because I am genuinely interesting in learning about the subject. I really am such a nerd. Rather than relaxing or cramming for the test tomorrow I was dead set on trying to understand the derivation for the surface area of a sphere, which I did not accomplish. anything that isn't immediately important is somewhat more interesting. I suppose in the back of my mind I am starting to think about preparing myself for next year. After all it would be a shame to have cruised through calculus only to be stopped by multivariable.

Easter

Easter is a holiday that is being diluted with commercialism. I think the creators of South Park got pretty close with this past weeks episode. (Due to Viacom's copyright enforcement I am unable to post a link to the You Tube video.) I have realized that there is not much connection between the Easter celebration at church and the celebration at the mall. It is my theory that at one point there was some basis for the easter we celebrate at the mall and the easter related to Jesus. The egg thing is pretty easy to relate because it has to do with rebirth. The color scheme that we see around the shopping malls and the easter edition candy relates to spring. Not that the trees, birds and butter files turn pastel, but that it brings about a cheery feeling to it. Spring, like the egg is where people not here but on the mainland, see trees and grass regrowing again. But the bunny is a bit of a stretch. I suppose I could make the claim that since bunnies repopulate really quickly, then they bring about a lot more life than other animals. But, then I suppose the same is for all Lagomorphs (actual order rabbits belong to) and rodents(believed order they belong to.) But, honestly, who would want a rat giving out Easter treats at the mall? For an answer to this troubling question I resort to wikipedia, and I find out that the Easter bunny is actually a hare not a rabbit. Also I found that the easter bunny comes from German folklore. Well that's the answer, it is one of those immigrant folklore customs that lead to another opportunity to get consumers to the stores associated with the other holiday relating to Jesus.

Big Envelope

It is impossible to describe to anyone who has not gone through the college admissions process what the past few days have been like. The season started early with a decision I had expected to be positive. In the case it had been negative, I would have serious doubts about the next few days. But several days past before I got the first rejection. I was ready to receive it because I was not expecting to get in. Furthermore, my close friend who is much more qualified than me also got rejected. But then the unexpected happened. I got a big envelope from a school I had not expected. At that moment I was no longer worried about all the other schools because I was accepted to one of my top choices. It is still hours after being accepted but I am still smiling. I do not intend to be boastful by writing about this topic but I just feel so happy that I am finally certain about something in my life. There still may be a lot more issues I have to face but for this moment I am alright.

Listening

From the last post I was writing about listening to the conservative radio show podcast of Dennis Prager. I started listening to his show one day, when I was flipping through the radio in my car. I first noticed the station because it was something other than music that I am not interested in listening to. I do not specifically remember the talk show that was airing, but after listening for a while, I became interested. After that, I began listening to this radio station when I drove somewhere. Most of the time I would be going home in the evening, because I wanted to stay later at robotics, rather than getting a ride from one of my parents. Drager's radio show airs during this time, so that is what I would listen to. This would be a weekly routine because I usually only stayed late on Fridays, and his show only airs on weekdays. After the second time I listened to it, he began to talk about something that I completely disagreed about, global warming. After hearing it for a few minutes, I was drawn into the show, because I wanted to understand how he justified his argument. Even after I got home I was still thinking about the claims that he was making. One such argument that he brought up, was about how in Al Gore's movie, Inconvinient Truth, some of the claims he made were not entirely truthful. The issue that Prager brought up, was that when Gore claimed that the the scientific community had complete agreement about whether people are responsible for the climate change, was based on a flawed study by Naomi Orskes. After reading more about this specific study, I found out that what he said had some truth to it. In her study, she said that she used the search term, "climate change," when she really used "global climate change," thus, decreasing the amount of articles that would be relevant to her study. But even if the study may have had a few articles that disagreed with the current consensus on climate change, there is still a strong argument for agreement. Seeing this did not change my opinion but got me to re-examine my opinions.
What this showed me, was that news and the media we come in contact with have some bias. That does not mean that media sources that tend to lean in one direction cannot trusted, but that both reports present some form of what is happening. Nation Public Radio, may interview wounded soldiers, or report about the latest bombing, to present the truth that Iraq is unsafe. But what Fox News, or other conservative media outlets will report on how the government is cracking down on death squads, or how Baghdad is becoming safer after Bush proposed the troop surge. I might draw a conclusion either way about whether the war is successful or not based on which news source I listed to (assuming I accepted everything I heard). When what is really happening is that the insurgents are moving their attacks to focus on areas other than Baghdad, so NPR is truthful about the harm done to people, and Fox is truthful about the reduced attacks in Baghdad. By listening to the conservative stance on current events, as well as the liberal stance, I can get a better understanding of what is actually going on.

Podcasters

Lately I have been getting into watching or listening to podcasts on iTunes. I mainly listen to the comedy ones or political podcasts. My favorite podcast is "the show with Ze Frank." This video podcast is really entertaining using various types of humor. Sometimes it will be funny just because he says something awkward or strange. Other times he pokes fun at politics. If I tried to explain a few of the scenarios they would not be nearly as funny as watching them. Another comedy podcast I enjoy is The Onion Radio News. Prior to subscribing to the podcast I had read a book with a bunch of Onion articles. These are usually about a minute or less long so they do not get very deep. They usually just skim the surface of a topic by reporting about a similar situation but in a very strange context. Most recently there was one titled "Nation's Substitute Teachers Would Like To Know Who Threw That." And it is basically a joke about some association of substitute teacher getting angry in a similar fashion to how they would get angry in the classroom situation.
The other podcast I listen to is very interesting to listen to. When I am done listening to the comedy podcasts for the day I might listen to the conservative radio host Dennis Prager. My reasoning for why, and my reaction to listening to it will take up another post so I will write about it later. By the way, I am fairly liberal so listening to conservatives is difficult sometimes.